{"id":15,"date":"2025-06-26T17:33:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/rklab\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2026-08-31T13:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:45:09","slug":"team","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/team\/","title":{"rendered":"Brains behind the science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Farewell for Nate (Undergraduate student) and welcoming Susannah (Undergraduate student) . From left to Right: Haley Kruest, Emily Bray, Ruchika Kashyap, Nathaniel Robert Mcdougall, and Susannah Holbrook-Hill<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Poster presentation REEU Undergraduate Symposium (presenter –Jayden Longhurst<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>). From left to Right: Susannah Holbrook-Hill, Ruchika Kashyap, Jayden Longhurst<\/strong><\/strong>, Haley Kruest and Emily Bray<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Ruchika Kashyap Ph.D. (Principal Investigator)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist
Urban and Controlled Environment Pathology
Department of Plant Pathology
3311 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens Campus
Email: ruchika.kashyap@uga.edu<\/a>
Office: 706-542-4774<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral Researcher: University of California, Davis, CA.
PhD. Plant Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.
M.S. Plant Pathology (Minor – Entomology), Punjab Agricultural University, India.
B.S. Agriculture with (Hons.) in Crop Protection \u2013 Punjab Agricultural University, India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Dr. Kashyap investigates plant disease challenges with a focus on fungal and oomycete pathogens in indoor and urban production systems. Her research leverages tailored strategies driven by needs assessments and strong stakeholder collaborations. Dr. Kashyap\u2019s goal is to develop sustainable plant disease management solutions that directly benefit producers, while bridging the gap between farm and fork through impactful science communication. Additionally, she leads an extension program that fosters a two-way learning process, translating research into actionable solutions for the agricultural community. Passionate about creating positive societal change, Dr. Kashyap uses science communication as a powerful tool to engage and educate diverse audiences. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Haley Kruest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MS – Graduate Research Assistant
Kashyap’s UCEP Lab
Department of Plant Pathology
2313 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens Campus
Email: kruest@uga.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

B.S. in Agriculture, specializing in Horticulture\/CEA, The Ohio State University, OH 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Haley joined the U-CEP Lab in 2025 after graduating from the Ohio State University, where she discovered her passion for controlled environment agriculture and plant pathology. She\u2019s especially interested in fungal pathogens and is eager to improve sanitization techniques that help growers manage disease outbreaks more effectively. Driven by a love for outreach and education, Haley hopes to inspire the next generation of growers and plant pathologists. Outside the lab and greenhouse, she enjoys running and hiking in local parks, experimenting with new recipes in the kitchen, and playing guitar.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Laxmi<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Laxmi Prasad Joshi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PhD – Graduate Research Assistant
Kashyap’s UCEP Lab
Department of Plant Pathology
2313 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens Campus
Email: lpjoshi@uga.edu<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

M.S. in Plant Sciences (Biotechnology), Tennessee State University, TN 2026
M.S. Agriculture Sciences (Plant pathology), Agriculture and forestry University, Nepal 2022
B.S. in Agriculture Sciences, Tribhuvan University, Nepal 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Laxmi Prasad Joshi is a Ph.D. student in Plant pathology at the University of Georgia. His research interest focuses on Fungal and oomycete pathogen diversity, population dynamics, and pathogen detection in controlled environmental agriculture (CEA) systems. This work can help growers and researchers to identify the potential source of pathogen introduction and spread and support the development of improve disease monitoring and management strategies. He is also interested in plant-microbe interactions, molecular diagnostics, metagenomics, bioinformatics, and statistical analysis. Outside lab, he loves hiking and travelling to new places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Temporary Workers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Emily Bray <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Student
Kashyap Lab: 01.2026 to Present
Email: Emily.Bray@uga.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Emily is an undergraduate student at UGA majoring in Plant Biology with an emphasis in Plants and Microbes. She plans to attend graduate school and is exploring plant pathology as a potential career path. She also has a passion for illustration and is interested in finding ways to improve science communications through art and design.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Nathaniel Robert Mcdougall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Student
Kashyap Lab: 01.2026 to 05.2026 and 09.01.2026 to Present
Email: Nathaniel.McDougall@uga.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Nate is an undergraduate student in Plant Biology whose academic interests include plant conservation, endangered species restoration, and invasive plant management. He aims to pursue a career as a botanical garden curator.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Kylie Roth<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Student
Kashyap Lab: 08.17.2026 to Present
Email: Kylie.Roth@uga.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Kylie is an undergraduate student at the University of Georgia majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish. Her academic interests include public health, disease, and pathogen interactions. She previously conducted research in turfgrass science and hopes to expand her experience with plant research while developing a deeper understanding of biological mechanisms and their applications to human health. She plans to attend medical school and pursue a career as a physician.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

AST MEMBERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jayden  S Longhurst<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Intern (Internship Period: May to July 2026)
2026 CGCv2 REEU Fellow
Email: jayden2921@swisscows.email<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Jayden has been fascinated with all things related to science from an early age. He is currently an undergraduate majoring in Microbiology at Brigham Young University where he has been studying bacteriophages for several years. He also studies Pectobacterium carotovorum<\/em>: a bacterial soft rot disease that infects many economically important crops. He came to UGA to get experience with eukaryotic disease agents. He plans to go to graduate school and become a plant pathologist<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Jorge Alberto Reyes Pineda, PhD.<\/strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postdoctoral Associate (Kashyap Lab: 09.2024 to 08.2025)
PhD. in Horticulture, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.
M.Sc., in Plant Pathology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. 
B.S. in Agriculture with (Hons.) in Agronomy, Universidad Nacional de Agricultura (UNAG), Honduras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Dr. Reyes joined the Urban and Controlled Plant Pathology Lab as a Postdoc in September 2024. Currently he is working as a Molecular Plant Disease and Insect Diagnostician with Bartlett Tree Experts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Pradeep Kumar Ragu Chanthar<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ph.D. in Computer Science – Graduate Research Assistant
10.2025 to 06.2025
Boyd Research and Education Center
Email: pradeep@uga.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

M.S. in Spatial Information Technology, University of Georgia, GA 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Pradeep Kumar Ragu Chanthar is a Ph.D. student in Computer Science at the University of Georgia, where he conducts research on large language models, zeroth-order optimization, and differential privacy. His current work focuses on memory-efficient optimization methods for training and fine-tuning large-scale neural networks, including models such as OPT-13B and RoBERTa-Large. He has prior experience as a programmer analyst and research assistant, with a background spanning machine learning, data science, and applied computer vision. At Kashyap lab, Pradeep helped with website and Urban Pods Podcast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Ashley Oshin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undergraduate Intern (Internship Period: May to July 2025)
2025 CGCv2 REEU Fellow
Email: ashleyposhin@outlook.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bio-sketch: <\/strong>Ashley is an undergraduate student at Fort Valley State University majoring in Agricultural Economics. She plans to go to graduate school, become an agricultural food scientist, and eventually create her own agricultural non-profit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruchika Kashyap Ph.D. (Principal Investigator) Assistant Professor and Extension SpecialistUrban and Controlled Environment PathologyDepartment of Plant Pathology3311 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens CampusEmail: ruchika.kashyap@uga.eduOffice: 706-542-4774 Postdoctoral Researcher: University of California, Davis, CA.PhD. Plant Science, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD.M.S. Plant Pathology (Minor – Entomology), Punjab Agricultural University, India.B.S. Agriculture with (Hons.) in Crop Protection \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":945,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"caes_section_patterns":[],"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-15","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/945"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/15\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/uceplab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}